Course Details

After successfully completing this course, you will be able to

1. Analyze virtual team’s performance challenges and pitfalls to their performance.
2. Outline the roles and functions within Virtual teams.
3. Assess the techniques for launching a Virtual team and how to set up Virtual teams for success.
4. Summarize the characteristics that differentiate a great Virtual team from the rest and the techniques for increasing a failing virtual team performance.
5. Assemble Leadership skills required in a virtual team and challenges faced by Virtual team leaders as well as tips, techniques and best practices for leading high performance.
6. Explain how to accelerate a Virtual team performance using four top performance boosters
7. Outline a virtual team meeting and techniques that really work in a Virtual team meeting environment.
8. Summarize the six lessons for a successful Virtual team

Reading Assignments:

Each week, you will be assigned a chapter from the class text book to read. In order to grasp the weekly course objectives and participate fully in the discussions, it is highly recommended to complete weekly assigned reading chapter before participating in the discussions.

Supplemental Readings:

Students are encouraged to research weekly topics on the internet and use their research findings in the discussions or weekly essays to support their points. The following website can be used as one source for additional reading to reinforce our course objectives and understanding http://www.seanet.com/~daveg/vrteams.htm#Introduction

Forum Assignments:

Classroom interaction is a vital part of the online experience. Valuable knowledge can be gained from understanding the experiences of other class participants. You will earn participation points for activity in the Forums.

I monitor the boards for participation so there is no reason for you to submit your comments and peer reviews as separate assignments.

Please join the forums each week. Students must post a reply to both weekly forums and reply to at least 2 other students for each Forum. This means that each week you should have 2 initial posts and 4 responsive posts. Replies must be posted in the week due and replies after the end of the each week will not be graded. The Forums are for student interaction and input should be submitted before the week ends in order to fully participate in the discussions. Students should demonstrate their own knowledge in the forums and avoid copying and pasting from websites.

Guidelines:

• Post the initial response to each forum by 11:55pm, ET, Thursday.
• Initial responses should be no less than 250 words.
• Initial responses are to be original in content and demonstrate a thorough analysis of the topic.
• Reply to at least 2 of your classmates in each forum by 11:55pm, ET, Sunday.
• Replies to classmates should be no less than 150 words.
• Responses to classmates are significant to advance the forum.
• All forums can be accessed in the Forums section of the course.

Written Assignments

All written submissions should be submitted in a font and page set-up that is readable and neat. All essays must be prepared in Microsoft Word and uploaded to the appropriate online assignment. Please include your name, course number, Week number, assignment name at the top of your submissions e.g. MTest – Week 1 Essay.

Follow the consistent format as described below;

• Typewritten in 1.5 -spaced format with a readable style and font and submitted inside the electronic classroom (unless classroom access is not possible and other arrangements have been approved by the professor).
• Arial 10 or 11-point font or Times New Roman styles.
• Page margins Top, Bottom, Left Side and Right Side = 1 inch, with reasonable accommodation being made for special situations and online submission variances.

Text book Questions (week 1,2 & 4)

In weeks 1, 2 & 4 assignments will be based on content taken from the text book. These may be questions or topics taken from the respective weeks reading. All arguments must be supported by textbook, research or experience based examples. Additional instructions if necessary will be provided in the assignment instructions or amplified in the weekly course announcements.

Text book Exercises (Week 6 & 8)

You will complete two text book exercises based questions/tools taken from the class text book. These tools covers material covered in the week’s reading. They should be prepared in Microsoft Word and uploaded to the appropriate online assignment. Each tool should contain an abstract paragraph, body and a conclusion based on your understanding of the exercise. Additional instructions if necessary will be in the assignment instructions or amplified in the weekly course announcements.

Essays (week 3, 5 & 7)

You will write a ten-page essays not counting cover page or sources, at the end of Week 3, 5 and Week 7. Each essay must comply with APA format standards and summarize a section of the text which by no accident coincides with the readings for each week. Additional instructions if necessary will be in the assignment instructions or amplified in the weekly course announcements.

Exams/Quizzes

There are no Quizzes or Exams in this course

Field Experience Assignments:

There are no field experience assignments in this course

Final Project:

Students in this course will write a Final paper on Virtual Team Management & Success that covers all the sections covered in the class. It is highly encourage to start developing your paper from week one. Your paper must be in depth and address the main areas of class objectives that include;

• Building High performance Virtual teams
  • Profiles of Virtual team success
  • Differentiators of great teams (RAMP model)
  • Virtual team launch kit
• Leading virtual teams
  • How to lead virtual team
  • Team accelerating factors
  • Facilitating high impact Virtual team meetings
• Conclusion
  • Six lessons for successful Virtual teams

The term paper is due at the end of week 8 and must be APA compliant. The paper should be at least 5 pages excluding cover page and references section. The paper should be prepared in Microsoft Word and uploaded to the Week 8 Final Paper tab. Additional instructions if necessary will be in the Final paper instructions or amplified in the weekly course announcements.

In addition to the excellent references in your text you may want to review these selected sources for even more background into the nature of successful virtual teams:

Free Management Library (2010, December). Virtual Teams (teams developed and/or operated over the Internet/Web Available: http://managementhelp.org/grp_skll/virtual/virtual.htm

Meister, J. & Willyerd K. (2010, June) Leading Virtual Teams to Real Results Harvard Business Review Blog available at: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/06/leading_virtual_teams_to_real.html

Beyerlein, M., Beyerlein S., Bradley L. & Nemiro J. (Eds.). (2010). The Handbook of High-Performance Virtual Teams. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Imprint.